Saudi Arabia is no model country: Horrible human rights record, lack of democratic rights, oppression of women, allowing anti-Israel and anti-American madrasahs (fundamentalist Islamic schools) to stay open, arresting bloggers who disagree with the kingdom's policies, lack of religious freedom, etc. In addition of course that 19 of the 9/11 terrorists were from the Saudi country. Despite all of this and despite congressional opposition, President Bush has decided yet again to arm the Arabian country. This time with up-to-date weapons systems with devastating precision. Saudi Arabia is widely considered to be in the top three of the regions strongest militaries. And of course this sale is making our supposed "only ally" in the region nervous.Clearly the Bushies didn't learn the dangerous of the arms race with Russia during the Cold War. All this arms deal will do is encourage Iran to further arm themselves thus fueling an already tense situation in a unstable region. Boy they really know how to bring peace to a region, what better way than to arm everyone!! When will America learn that arming the enemy of our enemy isn't always smart--especially in the middle east? One only need to look at the Reagan administration arming Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's fighters/Taliban in Afghanistan.
What happens if and when the Saudi Royal Family is overthrown and radical clerics/terrorist groups get their hands on these sophisticated weapons? Say then they attack Israel and we'd have to back the Jewish state. We'd be in a war with all of Islam at that point. We'd have to bomb the holiest country in all of Islam!! President C- and his cronies have no understanding of history, regional politics and culture nor any ability to think ahead and see potential problems with such deals. They have blinders on and hand out weapons to questionable governments like they were handing out candy. This is beyond reckless but I don't expect anything different from this administration that seems to have been in power for longer than 8 years.
Perhaps the most troubling problem with this arms sale is that it is "no strings attached" in that it demands nothing of the Saudi kingdom. There is no demands for democratic reforms, human rights reforms, oil price reductions, etc.
In other news, Barack Obama and Hillary/Bill Clinton have finally made nice on this non-issue of supposed "racial differences." Obama stated, "I think that I may disagree with Sen. Clinton or Sen. Edwards on how to get things done, but we share the same goals. We're all Democrats, we all believe in civil rights, we all believe in equal rights, said the senator from Illinois. I think they're good people, they are patriots and they are running because they think they can lead this country to a better place, and I don't want the campaign in this stage to degenerate into so much tit for tat back and forth that we lose sight of why all of us are doing this."---End of Transmission---
2 comments:
Chimpy clearly wants to bring about the end of days...
No other explanation for it!
T&A:
I'm beginning to think the same thing. I think many Christian conservatives deny global warming or don't want to do anything about it because they believe it is a sign of the "end times."
To that I say, of COURSE it is a sign of the end days!! But because we are slowly (not so slowly in some places) destroying ourselves by ruining our planet.
How sad will it be when Jesus doesn't come and the rest of us have to say, "Told you so. Thanks for destroying us all you bastards."
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